ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE .MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



163 



figures. By dint of rubbings, 

 photographs and sketches, I have 

 obtained the complete drawing 

 of the various figures which are 

 given in Fig. 57, on a scale of 

 one-half the original. 



The serpent, especially the rat- 

 tlesnake, has always taken a lead- 

 ing part in the mythology and the 

 art of the more cultured Ameri- 

 can races, and crest-plumes, and 

 wings have often been considered 

 its proper attributes. The con- 

 ventional method of representa- 

 tion is also characteristically ab- 

 original. The plumes, the figure 

 connected with the eye, the bands 

 upon the neck, the stepped figures 

 of the body, and the semi-circu- 

 lar patches on the wings are all 

 characters that appear again and 

 again in the ancient art of the 

 United States. The peculiar em- 

 blematic treatment of the heart 

 is almost universal in temperate 

 North America. And just here 

 I may be permitted to suggest 

 that the remarkable feature of-the 

 great earth-work serpent of Ad- 

 ams county, Ohio, which has been 

 regarded as the " symbolic egg," 

 and which in its latest phase has 

 become the issue of a frog and 

 the prey of the serpent, is proba- 

 bly nothing more than the heart 

 of the serpent, the so-called frog 

 being the head. 



The rosettes are often seen in 

 Indian art. There can be little 

 doubt that the figures of this de- 

 sign are derived from mythology. 



